Looking for Clues: Writers Investigate Gender Disparity

Looking for Clues: Writers Investigate Gender Disparity

Isn't Potter a mystery book by a female writer?

Book Markeitng Expert Teaches Authors

There is a new page up about me as a book marketing expert.

Part of my own promotion for a new couse about how I make authors rich.

Writing a great book is just the start. Once that's done, the real work begins. As my friend Mark Victor Hansen says "It's not a book, it's a business."

Potter outsels competition by a factor of 10

Barnes & Noble.com - Bestsellers: Barnes & Noble Booktalk: "High and Mighty Harry: Destined for No. 1 on this list long before a single reader had turned a page of J.K. Rowling's sixth adventure, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince doesn't just stand above the competition: it levitates. Harry outsold its nearest bestseller rival by a factor of ten. Several versions wound up on the year-end list, with the deluxe edition of Half-Blood Prince currently holding No. 73, the unabridged CD audiobook is also at No. 19 on Barnes & Noble.com's year-end list, with the cassette audio edition at No. 84. "

Live from LA

Just checking in with you from Los Angeles.

The Mark Victor Hansen Mega Speaking Empire has a bunch of good speakers, best of all my friend Matt Bacak.

Have you been getting his marketing tips?

Potter books left collecting dust?

Independent Online Edition > Business News: "The company ordered 10.8 million copies of Half-Blood Prince, the largest print run in the history of publishing. 'We wanted enough books out there so every single fan could get a book when they wanted it,' explained Scholastic's Kyle Good. 'This was the number we came up with in collaboration with the retailers.'

Buoyed by the news that Half-Blood Prince had sold 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours, 1.9 million more than on the first day of the previous Potter tome, Scholastic promptly ordered a further 2.7 million copies, bringing the total to 13.5 million.

'This is a cause for celebration, not just for Scholastic but for book lovers everywhere,' chirped Lisa Holton, the president of Scholastic Children's Books, at the time.

Now, Scholastic's chairman, Richard Robinson, whose father Robbie founded the firm in 1920, admits bookshops have been left with 2.5 million unsold copies."

EiTB24.com

EiTB24.com: "Some 800,000 copies of the official Chinese edition of the latest Harry Potter book have been distributed to bookstores across the country, the government said, almost three months after illegal versions were sold."

A Book Signing Promot that works

I generally don't see much value in an author spending his precious time signing books at libraries or bookstores... but do think that ANY signature adds value. I never give out a copy of my book without a not on the title page.

Of course, Potter takes this to a whole 'nother level...

2theadvocate.com: Entertainment - Livingston library gets signed Harry Potter book 08/14/05: "'It was a contest through Scholastic,' said Youth Services Librarian Stacie Barron. 'I just had to submit the name and address of the library.'
Scholastic had originally intended to give just one signed copy to an American library that was named the winner in the sweepstakes (that was West Asheville Branch Library in Asheville, N.C.). But, according to a company news release, the response was 'overwhelming.'
More than 9,000 libraries nationwide entered the contest. So Scholastic decided to name one winner in each state. The Livingston Parish Main Library in the town of Livingston was the winner for Louisiana."

Even More Sales From Audio

I get questions all the time about "should I have an e-book?" and other forms of putting out a book.

Yes. And today's Potter story remids us that even the best selling book can make more with audio versions.

Journal Gazette | 08/15/2005 | Giving voices to Potter series: "Dale has given voice to more than 200 characters in the audio versions of the six “Harry Potter” books published so far (author J.K. Rowling has said a seventh title will end the series). The first five audio books in the series smashed previous sales records with more than 4 million copies sold in North America.

For the initial run of the most recent title, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” 635,000 audio versions were printed, making it the largest first run in the history of audio books, says Amanda D’Acierno, a spokeswoman at Random House Audio."

Potter getting credit for Books-A-Million's good numbers

Books-A-$1.7 Million [Fool.com: Motley Fool Take] August 17, 2005: "Even so, it bears pointing out that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince went on sale in July (near the end of Q2), so it didn't affect Q1 at all. Yet Books was doing pretty well this year even before Potter turbocharged the company's sales. In fact, through the first half of this year, Books' sales were up nearly as well as in Q2 alone -- posting a better-than-6% improvement over the first half of fiscal 2004. Likewise, profits increased a most respectable 24% over the numbers Books posted in 1H 2004."

WSJ.com - 'Harry Potter' Lifts Sales, But Borders Net Dives 84%

WSJ.com - 'Harry Potter' Lifts Sales, But Borders Net Dives 84%: "Sales of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' accounted for about 4% of the 6% rise in trade-book sales. Sales of the book went 'as expected,' with sales having an initial burst when the book first came out and then slowing quite a bit since then, said Borders finance chief Ed Wilhelm. He attributed the slowing to more copies of the book being printed than previous Harry Potter books, with the latest being more widely distributed than past installments. However, the top 50 books excluding the Harry Potter book were down from the a year earlier.
Consumers who purchased the new Harry Potter book also spent money in the retailer's cafe, and other children's-related products sold well because of the book, Mr. Wilhelm said."

Why pay when it's available for fre?

We still hear cries that online piracy will kill creative output. Yet, even with plenty of sites offering pirated copies, Potter sells millions of books.

Today's lesson might be.. giveaways might actually help INCREASE sales

Blair said he has sent out more than 100 cease and desist letters to Web sites in countries including the United States - home to the most offenders - the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Poland, China, Spain and Brazil. He also has sent more than 100 notices to eBay to terminate auctions of the pirated book.

Newsday.com: Harry Potter and the online pirates

Building the better mousetrap

There's a lot of discussion about the "mousetrap" analogy with today. Most experts say that it doesn't matter how great your product (or story in the case of a book) is, the world needs to know about it.

JK Rowling's did write a nice story, and it was "found".. Depending on the version of the story you hear.

I come down in the middle. I believe that a great product is important, and that good marketing will kill a bad product faster. In fact, I think a great book is necessary just to talk about book marketing.

Here's another story about the start of the Harry Potter tale.

Harry

Update on links to my press release

All or part of my press release report below does not include YAHOO links.. there are 366 total there.

Most of these are just the press release.. but that has two links.. one to this site, and one to my main site.

Blogs work. Press Releases work better (not counting the offline coverage) and the combination is great.

It's easy to get your articles all over the web

I just did a search for the press release I issued about my Potter Marketing Rearch product and this blog. 16 sites have it listed in Google, 9 media outlets printed it out, and about 375 have accessed it for possible stories.

Some 51,000 have viewed it on prweb.com.

Bear in mind that this project is very late for the July 16th promotion. I didn't even start until AFTER the launch party I attendend.

Here's another press release that's doing the same thing. Their program is for literacy.. reading discusssion groups in general, and the only connection is the name of the book and author in the headline.

The Writing Tutor Promotes Reading with Online Literature Circles; Newest Discussion Topic is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: "The release of the most recent book in the Harry Potter series is the perfect opportunity for educators to push reading since so many children (and adults) love the series. To encourage reading and literary discussion, The Readers� Corner Book Club has posted the question: �What did you think of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?� For a little added fun, The Writing Tutor has also included a survey asking people how quickly they read the book"

Do bookstore signing help sell books

This is one of the most asked questions I get from authors.. "Will my book story tour sell books"

Short answer.. yes.. but JK Rowlings did ONE for Harry Potter Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter's midnight spell : HindustanTimes.com/UK: News for UK Asians: "Rowling made a single, carefully orchestrated appearance at Edinburgh Castle where she read to 70 young fans from the world over, including India, who won the chance to be at the launch and interview her."

News from Canada

CBC Arts: IN BRIEF: 'Harry Potter' sales hit 700,000 in Canada; more: "Potter sales hit fever pitch in Canada
Jamie Broadhurst at Raincoast Books in Vancouver estimates sales of the latest Harry Potter book in Canada were between 650,000 to 700,000 in the first weekend.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series about a boy wizard-in-training, was launched July 16 to much anticipation by fans worldwide.
Nearly nine million copies of the book sold in the U.S. and U.K. this past weekend, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Canada's Indigo Books said the chain did about 1,200 transactions a minute during the first two hours the book was available. "

More sales numbers

Top News Article | Reuters.com: "Asda, Britain's second-largest supermarket group and part of the Wal-Mart empire, said it sold nearly 300,000 copies over the weekend, one-third more than for the fifth book in the series, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.'
Online retailer Amazon.com wound up with more than 1.5 million advance orders for the book around the world and bookstore chain Barnes & Noble said it sold a record 1.3 million copies in the first 48 hours of release."